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Making Characters Believable

*This was originally posted on Kathryn Jones' blog, but I will post it here as well.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

GUEST POST: Making Characters Believable

Need some help pinning down your characters? This guest post from author, Marie Lavender, will help!

Photo by: themonnie, courtesy of Flickr

So,
you have this story in your head.You
have to get it down on paper (or type it…whatever works for you).So, you do.You have a pretty good idea of where it’s going.You can see the arc of the story, how it all
comes together.You have a good main
character for it too.

But,
how do you make that character someone readers will love, or at least
like?There are plenty of different
kinds of characters out there…some we love, some we love to hate.But somehow, the protagonist is usually
someone we want to root for.Right?But, why is that?Why do writers have the innate ability to
make their heroes lovable and their villains worthy of hating?I have two rules, and I
think they might help you.One is pretty
simple, but it can get complicated.Know
your character.This is a blanket statement,
and it might be a little repetitive for some.Know your main character like you know yourself, or like you know your
best friend.You need to know their
motivations, their deepest fears, their secrets.Know their background – what kind of family
they came from, what their relationship with their family is.You have to know this character so well that
if someone quizzed you randomly, you could answer off the bat.So, how do you get to
know your character?By writing, of
course!Some of those characteristics
will come out in the writing.Some
you’ll have to dig for.Some you won’t
even use, but it’s nice to know anyway.You may want to do a character worksheet.This is where you describe your character
completely: name, age, race, physical traits, anything that makes the characters
stand out from the next person.Then,
you want to dig deep into the basic motivations of the character.What do they really want in life?How will they go about getting it?What is really important to them?For my current projects, I’m using a
questionnaire that I will provide you with for your own characters.And you can add your own questions, or delete
the ones that aren’t applicable.I find
this kind of worksheet usually helps.

If your character has a job, is he or she good at it?
Does he or she like it?

What are your character's bad habits?

If you asked about his or her greatest dream, what
would your character tell you?

What's a secret dream that he or she wouldn't tell you
about?

What kind of person does your character wish he or she
could be? What is stopping him r her?

What is your character afraid of? What keeps him or her
up at night?

What does your character think is his or her worst
quality?

What do other people think your character's worst
quality is?

What is a talent your character thinks he or she has
but is very wrong about?

What did his or her childhood home look like?

Who was his or her first love?

What's the most terrible thing that ever happened to
him/her?

What was his/her dream growing up? Did he/she achieve
this dream? If so, in what ways was it not what the character expected? If
your character never achieved the dream, why not?

In what situation would your character become violent?

In what situation would your character act heroic?

Of course, this really
helps.It won’t answer everything, but
it definitely helps you fill out some things about the character.Another tool that helps
is to write journal entries from the perspective of the character.For example, such and such thing happened
today (and it can be an event in your story) and this is why I’m so angry about
it or happy.You can also write letters
from your character to another person (or character), using the same technique.What I learned in
Creative Writing classes was to make sure your character has consistent
inconsistencies.What’s that? Well, that just means that sometimes your
character might be a little contradictory.Let’s say a character has a major fear of heights, but their greatest
ambition is to fly.Do they ever take
the plunge and try it anyway?Do they
overcome that fear?Or maybe your
character considers herself a social butterfly on the phone, and yet she’s
really agoraphobic.Well, that would
make an odd combination, right?And here’s where my
second rule comes in.Make your
character human, capable of making mistakes.No one wants to read about someone totally perfect.Everyone is human.Every one of us has made a mistake, whether
small or large.And we’ve all dealt with
regret.So, maybe your character should
make a mistake too.Maybe it’s an error
in judgment.They trusted someone they
shouldn’t have.They hurt someone they
care about, and they regret it.It can
be smaller than that too.But, make your
character utterly and lovably human, and readers will love him or her too.Any of these things can
make a character believable.What will
you use to make your character come alive on the page?

Guest
Blogger Bio

Marie Lavender lives in the Midwest
with her family and three cats. She has been writing for over twenty
years. She has more works in progress than she can count on two
hands.

At the tender age of nine, she began writing stories. Her imagination
fueled a lot of her early child’s play. Even growing up, she
entered writing contests and received a certificate for achieving
the second round in one. She majored in Creative Writing in college
because that was all she ever wanted – to be a writer. While there, she
published two works in a university publication, and was a copy editor on the
staff of an online student journal. After graduating from college, she
sought out her dream to publish a book.

Since then, Marie has published sixteen books. Marie Lavender’s real love
is writing romances, but she has also written mysteries, literary fiction and
dabbled a little in paranormal stories. Most of her works have a romantic
element involved in them. Upon Your Return is her first
historical romance novel. Feel free to visit her website at http://marielavender.webs.com/ for further information about her books and her
life. Marie is also on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Marie Lavender lives in the Midwest with her family and three
cats. She has been writing for over twenty-five years. She has more works in
progress than she can count on two hands. Since 2010, Marie has published 22 books in the genres of
historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal
romance, science fiction, fantasy, mystery/thriller, dramatic fiction, literary fiction and poetry. She has
also contributed to several anthologies. Her current series are The
Heiresses in Love Series, The Code of Endhivar Series, The Magick Series and The Blood at First Sight
Series.